Poland: another outburst of abrasive political hype and even more hysterical responses

“On the Barricades” s06e43

In this first episode of the weekend’s release of “On the Barricades”, hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat discuss a tragic incident in Polish news related to the death of the 15-year-old teenage son of the main opposition party’s MP, Magdalena Filiks. The teenager was a victim of abuse at the hands of a Civic Platform member, who was also an LGBT activist, and the suicide occurred after the (arch-conservative) ruling party released a report on state radio that revealed the victim’s identity. In the wake, the incident has been weaponized by both political entities. This uproar and the entire logic of the son killing himself, in relation to the political rift, has been completely warped in the media.

Boyan and Maria provide a more detailed and informed perspective of what took place than the article from the Guardian.* They share their view on what to make of such incidents of hysterical weaponizing of tragic events for political deeds, and what it all says about the broken sectarian political system in Romania. They also discuss a comparable incident from 2018, when the mayor Paweł Adamowicz of Polish city Gdańsk was stabbed during a public speech, which went un-analyzed and used exploitatively in the public discourse.

*https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/07/poland-ruling-party-under-fire-after-suicide-of-opposition-mps-son